[Transcript of a midweek message published by Horley Baptist Church on YouTube[1], August 2020]
On the day of Pentecost Jesus’ disciples received the gift of the Holy Spirit. That very same gift is given to everyone who makes Jesus Lord of their life. But what effect will that have?
We’re carrying on our series looking at how do you, how does a person become a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ. Last week – well two weeks ago – in part one I talked about the fact that the first step to becoming a Christian is realizing through the conviction of the Holy Spirit that there is something amiss, that there is something not quite right with yourself, there’s a hole that needs filling, there’s just a realization that you are a sinner. That doesn’t mean you’re not a good person, it just means that you realized that you have been lord of your own life and now you need to make Jesus lord of your life.
We were reminded of a story that Jesus told. The parable of the prodigal son reminds us that we have a heavenly father who is just waiting and longing for us to come home and he’s going to welcome us with arms open wide, he’s going to celebrate, he’s going to throw a party because you have been fully accepted into God’s family and you are loved as a child of God. Regardless of what you have done or what you will do, you are forgiven.
I also talked about a time when, not long after Jesus’s death, at the festival of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came on the apostles and Peter spoke boldly about Jesus to a crowd of onlookers. I asked the question what do we need to do to be saved, how do we respond to the guilt that we feel for Jesus’s death, how do we respond to this guy who was actually the son of God? Peter tells them these words in Acts chapter 2 and verse 38: “Repent and be baptized and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit“.
Historically, if you look in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was given to special people for special occasions so it might have been given to someone to craft beautiful items for the temple or it might have been given to an individual, for example, Samson who was leading the Israelites so that he had superhuman strength. The prophets predicted the time – you can see this in Joel and actually Peter picks this up in his sermon to those onlookers at Pentecost – this idea that there will come a time when God’s spirit wouldn’t just be reserved for a special people and a special task but it would be poured out on all people. This is how Peter explains this strange behaviour that the disciples were exhibiting; that actually they had received the gift of the Holy Spirit. He knew this because Jesus had promised them. He said that they should wait in Jerusalem before they did anything else, to receive the gift that their heavenly father wanted to give them, and they had received the gift of the Holy Spirit.
This has two implications, we’re going to talk briefly about one now, the other one we’ll think about in a later episode. The first thing you receive when you become a Christian is you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Traditionally this was tied up with baptism but that’s not necessarily so now because we tend to wait a while before we baptize people. As a follower of Jesus Christ you have the personal indwelling of God. The second thing about receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit is that you are given a power-filled ministry and we’ll talk more about that later.
Let’s just pick up this idea of God living inside us. When you follow Jesus Christ, when you make him lord of your life, when you welcome him into your heart, when you become a Christian you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The creator God, the God whose hands flung stars into space, the God who created the whole universe – as crazy as it may sound – lives within you. He dwells within your heart and I very much say that if you’ve got the God of the universe living inside you that’s got to make a difference. Paul tells the early Christians that they should produce fruits, good fruits, fruits of the Holy Spirit. The effect of the God of the universe living within you means that you will produce fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, self-control, you should change.
This is what we picked up in the previous episode. James was so adamant that there should be an outward sign of that inward change. You have to change because it’s impossible not to. If you’ve got the God of the universe living within you that has to make a difference. What’s happening is that you’re becoming more like God, not a god but more like God. You’re increasingly reflecting the image of God which is what humanity was created to do. That’s been messed up by sin, that’s been messed up by all the rubbish that we are put through and we do. But what that Holy Spirit within you is starting to do is have a big cleanup, a big litter pick starting to remove that bad stuff, starting to produce and grow the good stuff so that you become more like Jesus.
[1] YouTube link: How Do I Become A Christian? Part 2
Bible references: Acts 2 v38
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Contributed by Martin Shorey; © the Author
